Higher Education Institutional Leadership Board

Dr. Sherri Braxton is the inaugural Senior Director for Digital Innovation at Bowdoin College. By way of partnerships across the college, she leads efforts to identify, prioritize and pursue opportunities for digital innovation impacting both curricular and co-curricular learning spaces. Her work also extends to developing partnerships and collaborative initiatives with peers at other institutions as well as establishing new consortia relationships to prepare and position Bowdoin for the academic transformation on the horizon in the K-16 education landscape.

Dr. Braxton was a task force co-lead for the IMS Global Consortium Open Badge Extensions for Education (OBEE) initiative to identify new extensions for the Open Badges 2.0 Specification and now serves as both a co-chair of the Open Badges 3.0 and a member of the Comprehensive Learner Record working groups. She also participates in the Academic & Technology Officers and Digital Credentials Innovation Leadership Networks. She has also authored book chapters on both digital credential program design and implementation and the comprehensive learner record.

Dr. Braxton holds a Doctor of Science in Computer Science from The George Washington University with a double minor in Management Science and Educational Leadership. She holds a Master of Science in Computer Science with a Mathematics minor from North Carolina State University and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics with Computer Science minor from Wake Forest University. Dr. Braxton is also a graduate of both the MOR Associates Information Technology Leadership Program and the EDUCAUSE Learning Technology Leaders Institute where she also served as a faculty member and co-director.

Thomas Cavanagh, Ph.D. is Vice Provost for Digital Learning at the University of Central Florida. In this role, he oversees the distance learning strategy, policies, and practices of one of the nation’s largest universities. In his career, Tom has administered e-learning development for both academic (public and private) and industrial (Fortune 500, government/military) audiences. He has been recognized with numerous awards from organizations such as the Online Learning Consortium, the United States Distance Learning Association, the IMS Global Learning Consortium, and the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technology. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and often consults with other institutions regarding academic innovation. He is active in the higher education community and serves on a number of national advisory boards. Tom’s research interests include e-learning, technical communication, and the societal influence of technology on education, training, culture, and commerce and he has published extensively in both peer-reviewed and popular outlets. He is also an award-winning author of several mystery novels.

Sean DeMonner has worked in the technology field for over 20 years in settings ranging from universities to commercial startups to established publicly-traded corporations. His professional experience includes functional management, organizational development, strategic planning, product development, and project and portfolio management. His broad technical background spans general IT applicationsand infrastructure, web and multimedia design and development, and delivery of related services.

Mr. DeMonner is currently responsible for enterprise academic technology and directs the Teaching & Learning organization for the University of Michigan’s Information Technology Services division. He holds a BA in English Literature from UC Santa Barbara and an MA in Educational Technology from the University of Michigan. He lives in Ann Arbor with his wife and two children.

Rob Ditto is a Technical Director for the IDEA Courseware Team at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. After nine years managing content delivery technology for several interactive media firms, Rob went “back to school” in 1997, helping Wharton launch its award-winning WebCafe service supporting faculty teaching and student collaboration in the School’s group-learning-oriented curriculum. Rob was recognized as a Computerworld Honors Laureate in 2004 for the WebCafe project and by Wharton in 2006 as a recipient of the School’s 125th Anniversary Employee Recognition Award. Beginning in 2011, Rob helped bring the Canvas LMS to Wharton first, and then to Penn as a whole, leading to a University of Pennsylvania Models of Excellence honorable mention award in 2013. Rob holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Chris Howes serves as the Vice President and Chief Information Officer of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. Dr. Howes joined KCTCS in 2021 and provides leadership, service, and strategic technology direction for the system. An experienced technology leader, his career includes working with technology startups, healthcare organizations, and serving in technology leadership roles at the University of Kentucky. Most recently, he served as Chief Information Officer at Morehead State University.

Dr. Howes holds three degrees – a Bachelor’s degree in computer information systems, a Master’s degree in business administration, and a Doctor of Education degree in educational technology leadership, all from Morehead State University. He also serves on technology and higher education industry advisory boards.

A native of eastern Kentucky, Dr. Howes is passionate about supporting the mission of KCTCS and serving the people of the Commonwealth. He lives in Lexington with his wife Rebecca, daughter Emilia, and son Jude.

Bethany Gordy is the Enterprise Learning Technology Architect at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she provides strategy, holistic evaluation, and implementation of new applications and integrations within its centrally-supported digital learning environment. In her over 20 years in IT, she has held several positions in the academic technology space, such as business analyst, senior instructional designer, and senior project manager. Her experience provides a foundation for a unique perspective that allows her to craft strategies and solutions that meet campus needs for a comprehensive, integrated learner-centered digital ecosystem. Bethany holds a Master of Science in Project Management; is a graduate of the MOR Associates Information Technology Leadership Program; and is currently chairing the Unizin Learning Tools, Strategies, and Operations group.

Dr. Stephen Harmon serves as Associate Dean of Research at Georgia Tech Professional Education (GTPE), Interim Executive Director of the Center for 21st Century Universities (C21U), and as a professor at the Georgia Tech College of Design. He heads a team of educational technology development and research professionals dedicated to improving the education experience for all learners across a lifetime of education. He leads the invention, prototyping, and validation efforts associated with educational innovation at Georgia Tech and fosters collaboration and creativity in education research with researchers and faculty members around the globe. His previous position was professor and chair of the Learning Technologies Division in the College of Education and Human Development at Georgia State University. Dr. Harmon’s research centers on educational uses of emerging technologies and has, for the last few years, focused on transforming higher education to better meet the needs of modern learners of all ages and society as a whole. Dr. Harmon has over 200 professional publications and presentations and has given dozens of invited keynote addresses internationally and was the 2011 recipient of Georgia State University’s Innovative Instruction Award. He was the spring 2016 commencement speaker at Georgia Southern University. He is a fellow of the Emerging Leaders Program at Georgia Tech and a member of the ACC Academic Leaders Network.

Avi Hyman is the University of Toronto's Director of Academic & Collaborative Technologies. He is an anthropologist with a doctoral degree from OISE, who has, for the past couple of decades, been fortunate to have positions which have allowed him to think both strategically about technology in higher education, and actualize ideas on an operational day-to-day level. 

He is cross-appointed to the university’s Centre for Teaching Support & Innovation (the faculty development centre), and the university’s Information Technology Services division (Office of the CIO). He also acts as an “ambassador” of sorts between central IT and the University’s Library System. Avi is an unabashed advocate of a standards-based approach to higher education technologies, and the philosophy of open access / open source learning. His landing page is http://uoft.me/avi

Dale is the director of digital innovation for the University Design Institute at Arizona State University. He works with faculty, staff, and technology partners to develop and implement digital solutions to enable student success. He has spoken on the topic of digital innovation in higher education at more than 20 conferences in the USA, Rwanda, Brazil, South Korea, Germany, Mexico, Russia, and Vietnam, and led workshops on the subject at numerous universities. Dale has a bachelor of science in design degree from ASU and a master in public policy degree from Harvard University.

Lee Johnston, Associate Vice Chancellor of Competency Technology at Brandman University, is a community-minded ed-tech leader with a crisp vision focused on the development of the next generation learning platform that enables educational innovation. His teams create products that advance the art of online learning with big-data analytics and advanced technologies that allow institutions to deliver new flexible educational programs efficiently.  Lee has five years of full-time college-level teaching experience along with 15-years of hands-on and executive-level technology leadership roles at private, public four-year, and two-year institutions. Lee holds a Master of Science in Computer Information Technology degree from Regis University and was awarded the Bronze Star and Presidential Unit Citation for his service in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Dr. Vince Kellen currently serves as the chief information officer for the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), as well as a member of the Chancellor's Cabinet, and vice chancellor and chief financial officer's senior management team. UCSD is recognized as a top 15 university world-wide and 7th best public university in the world, with over $1 billion in annual research funding, 34,000 students, 16 Nobel laureates who have taught on its campus and 161 faculty with national Academy memberships.

Dr. Kellen brings a rare combination of academic, business and IT strategy experience to his role, with a focus on transformational leadership within IT, applying leading edge approaches to current business challenges.  His twenty-five years of executive-level information technology experience offers a proven track record of successfully integrating innovative applications of information technology into all aspects of teaching, learning, and student success.  These innovations have resulted in markedly improved efficiencies and enhanced learning environments, as well as fruitful, collaborative relationships with researchers, faculty, staff, and students across all levels of higher education and the world. 

Dr. Kellen formerly served as the senior vice provost of Analytics and Technologies for the University of Kentucky, one of the top public research institutions and academic medical centers in the US., where his areas of responsibility included institutional research and analytics, enterprise software, research computing, academic technology, IT infrastructure and cloud services, and supporting the university’s 17 colleges, 30,000 students, and 14,000 faculty and staff.  Prior to that role, he held the position of chief information officer for three years. 

Mary-Ellen Kreher has more than 30 years experience in K-12 and Higher Education, including teaching and curriculum design, educational software and learning aps development, learning management and student information systems, and online education.  In her 30-year career working with learning institutions, education companies, and publishers, Mary-Ellen has led many innovative product initiatives aimed at increasing access to learning and student success. She joined the University of California’s Office of the President in 2012 to lead online course design and academic technology development. Through the Provost’s Innovative Learning Technology Initiative, Mary-Ellen now oversees a cross-campus effort to build online courses and develop the underlying systems and technologies that enable students across the UC system to enroll in and take these courses online.

Patrick Laughran has over a decade of diverse experience within Higher Education, including senior administration positions at both private and public institutions, as well as two stints as founding Chief Technology Officer for companies within online media and e-learning industries.  He is also an instructor for an online MBA program, teaching courses on strategies for information resource management and enterprise growth through innovation.  Mr. Laughran holds an M.B.A. from Babson College and B.S.B.A. from Northeastern University.  He is currently Chief Information Officer at Framingham State University with responsibility for the oversight of all information technology and services, including educational technology and distance education support.

 

Meggan Levitt, Ph.D. PMP is currently Assistant Vice Provost and Associate Chief Information Officer for Academic Applications at University of California Davis. In her current role, Meggan leads the planning and delivery of information system solutions that enable the university's core educational and research mission. Meggan manages educational technologies that support teaching and learning in classrooms and online, including learning management systems, instructional media creation and instructional design. Meggan also coordinates research IT concierge services and oversees UC Davis’ administrative systems that support critical processes related to students including admissions, enrollment, registration, orientation, financial aid, advising, student activities, student health, and career services.

Meggan previously worked for UC Berkeley, Georgia Tech, Emory University, Westminster College in Salt Lake City and the University of Texas at Austin. She earned her Master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership, Higher Education at Mercer University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Michelle Lew is the Director of Teaching and Learning Technologies at UCLA's Center for the Advancement of Teaching. In addition to contributing to a variety of campus IT initiatives and governance committees, Michelle is responsible for campus-wide programs and services that use technology to enhance student learning. Her portfolio includes UCLA's Learning Management System and related ecosystem tools as well as media-related services including lecture capture, instructional media production, and video streaming.


Michelle received her Bachelor of Arts degree from UCLA and she earned her MBA from USC's Marshall School of Business.

Jeff leads the Projects and Faculty Partnerships team at the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology at the University of British Columbia. He works with faculty, staff, and students across the university on teaching and learning innovation projects, and has over 20 years of design and project management experience, with graduate and undergraduate courses and programs. Jeff has a background in distance education, instructional design, and educational media and teaches in UBC’s Masters of Educational Technology program.

Kimberly Moore, JD, is the Director for Workforce, Professional and Community Education (WPCE) at Wichita State University (WSU). She has 30 years of experience in developing and coordinating workforce and professional development programming. A former state government administrator and corporate lobbyist, Kim served as Associate Director of the WSU Division of Continuing Education from 1996–2014. In October 2014, she was appointed Interim Director and served in that capacity until March, 2015 when she was appointed Director of WPCE.  She was promoted to Executive Director in June, 2021. Kimberly received her bachelor’s and Juris Doctor degrees from Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas.  

With more than 20 years of experience in higher education across areas such as academic advising, student success, curriculum design and competency-based education, Dr. Kathe Pelletier is currently the Director of the Teaching and Learning Program at EDUCAUSE. She brings an expertise for combining traditional higher education evidence-based practice with innovative delivery models. She has been recognized by the International Center for Supplemental Instruction for starting and scaling the first online Supplemental Instruction program, and she has also been recognized for a hybrid program and course framework that creates a structure for creativity for faculty yet ensures consistency and quality. During her career, Kathe has accomplished such things as building an online student success center from scratch, establishing a competency-based curriculum model that became an anchor for a self-paced CBE program, developing an assessment and outreach system that delivered personalized resource recommendations to incoming students, and guiding faculty communities of practice

Primarily a listener and a builder, Renee understands that to deliver value, it is critical to identify stakeholder needs.  A collaborator at heart, she has been very successful in team building designed to bridge gaps.  Responsible for learning technologies for UW System campuses, Renee recently led a systemwide project that identified and synthesized emerging trends in technology with the needs of teaching and learning to transform the UW System's Digital Learning Environment (DLE) (see: https://www.wisconsin.edu/dle/). She now turns her attention to developing partnerships and collaborations with other areas that support teaching and learning such as libraries and faculty development, leveraging data to improve student learning outcomes, and has a keen interest in forwarding access to Open Educational Resources.

Prior to joining UWSA, Renee was with the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater for 11 years, first as a full-time Lecturer in Marketing teaching face-to-face, hybrid, and online/blended course formats beginning in 2003. In 2010, she joined the institution’s Central IT group as Director, and was responsible for campus learning and classroom technologies, as well as IT training. Prior to her career in higher education, Renee enjoyed more than 15 years of corporate sector experience working for both public and private companies including Heidrick & Struggles, Arthur Andersen, and Arrow Companies. She earned an MBA with dual emphasis in marketing and technology & training, and a BA in French.

Gary Ritter, Ed. D., has been with Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, NC since 2004 where he currently serves as the Executive Director of Client Services. His areas of responsibility include leadership and strategic planning for technology use, technical support, classroom and lab support, technology asset management, academic technology services and staff development. Prior to assuming this role in 2019, he served as the Executive Director of Learning Technology Services. His first role in the information technology area came in 2010 when he was selected as the inaugural Faculty Liaison to Information Technology Services, a role designed to facilitate communication and understanding between faculty and technical staff. Gary has helped lead several major projects such as the selection and implementation of D2L Brightspace as the learning management system, Cisco Webex as the video conferencing and collaboration platform and Panopto as the video capture and repository system for the college. He continues to teach American history every semester. Professional interests include leadership, strategic planning, pedagogy, customer support, learning technologies, innovation, civic learning and neuroscience informed decision making. He holds the following degrees: Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies and History from UNCG; Master of Arts in Public History and Historic Preservation from UNCG; Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership from UNCC. He enjoys time with his wife and their two boys, travel, reading, disc golf, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and the New York Yankees.

John Rome is the Deputy Chief Information Officer and a 20+ year employee of Arizona State University. His career started at ASU in the University Technology Office (UTO) and he has worked closely with a variety of departments including: Data Administration, Institutional Research, the President's Office, Budget Department, and the Provost Office.

John has led ASU's Data Administration, UTO's Business Intelligence (BI), UTO's Application Development and ERP Systems (PeopleSoft), and UTO's Academic Technologies. John is a pioneer of data warehousing/BI in higher education, building ASU's first Data Warehouse around 1992. He also introduced dashboards to ASU in 2006. John has coached higher education institutions and industry on best practices, including the strategic importance of Bl. He is frequently asked to speak on the topic of analytics.

Mr. Rome has focused the last six years on dashboards/design/academic analytics and most recently, big data. As part of his role in UTO, John focuses his attention on architecting IT Service Management (ITSM) solutions based on the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practice framework. John holds a Bachelor of Arts from Clarke University (Iowa) and a Master of Business Administration from Arizona State University.

Rob Sapp has been a pioneer and innovator in eLearning, digital media, adaptive instruction, learning analytics, and the application of information technology to primary, secondary and post-secondary education for over 30 years. A tireless advocate for quality student experiences, Dr. Sapp has amassed a proven record in multiple senior and executive positions as a nexus between executive, technical, administrative and educational professionals. He has demonstrated great facility in academia and private industry in positions of senior and executive management. A strong and seasoned mentor, he has consistently demonstrated a penchant for recognizing talent and aptitude and working closely with staff to assist them in realizing their potential. He has led technical departments of varied sizes from startups with small teams of disparate skills to established organizations with over 160 employees.

Dr. Sapp holds a Doctor of Education from the University of Pennsylvania where his dissertation, "Creating and Applying Criteria to Evaluate Online Continuing Medical Education" was defended with distinction. He also holds a Master of Science in Educational Technology from the Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Arts in Instructional Design from the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). His undergraduate degree is in English, also from UMBC.

Dr. Sapp is currently the Founding Dean for the School of Technology and a Professor of Data Science at Northcentral University. He has also held faculty appointments at University of Maryland University College, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and The Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Sapp is an elected member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and has served as a member of the Technical Board of IMS Global Learning Consortium. He has also been a trustee of the Anne Arundel County Public Library System, National Board of Fitness Examiners, the Gibson Island Country School and a Mentor for FRC Team 2377, FIRST Robotics.

Brenda Selman is the Assistant Vice Provost for Enrollment Management and the University Registrar at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Her portfolio includes the Office of the University Registrar, the Student Veterans Center and the Student Information System teams. She works closely with campus leadership to streamline processes for students and faculty as well as to remove various barriers either from technology or policy.

Brenda has been instrumental in Mizzou’s work to develop a Comprehensive Learner Record, and serves on the core team. She loves working on new, innovative ways to serve students to improve the learning experience.



Brenda has also worked for the University of Missouri System as well as the Mizzou campus for two stints during her 20 years at the University. The first was to lead the implementation of the PeopleSoft student information system. The second was to provide coordination for the four UM universities as they developed the Comprehensive Retention Initiative that included implementation of new advising software, new degree audit software and new self-service enrollment software.



Brenda is very active in the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, serving on committees and being a regular presenter at national conferences. She’s held several positions with the Missouri Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, including president. She is currently serving as the Vice President for Government Relations and liaison to the state Core Curriculum Advisory Committee.


She was previously Associate Registrar at the University of Kansas. She has a bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies from KU as well as a master’s degree in Journalism.

Dr. Vernon C. Smith serves as the Provost of the American Public University System (American Military University and American Public University) by leading innovation for access, equity, and quality, while reducing costs and barriers to student success. This includes the promotion of Open Educational Resources (OERs) and the use of big data for predictive modeling and teaching excellence.

Prior to American Public University System, Dr. Smith served as Vice Provost, Distributed Learning and Instructional Technology at the University of the Pacific (Stockton, Sacramento, San Francisco) as well as oversaw the successful launch of Portmont College at Mount St. Mary's University (Los Angeles) through MyCollege Foundation, a Bill and Melinda Gates funded initiative where he served as the founding Chief Academic Officer and Provost. He served as Vice President of Academic Affairs at Rio Salado College (Tempe), the largest public, online two-year community college. He has an extensive background in distance learning issues and practices, including effective assessment and retention strategies, and the use of big data for predictive modeling and student success.

Jen Stedelin is the Deputy CIO and Associate Vice President for Enterprise Systems and Services at Penn State University. With over twenty years of higher education experience, she has served a variety of institutions in several capacities, including Chief Information Officer, Deputy CIO, and Chief Technology Officer. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Master of Business Administration from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and actively volunteers with the Centre County United Way Women’s Leadership Group.

Mr. John "Jack" Suess is Vice President of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). As Vice President, he provides university leadership for information technology at UMBC and serves on the executive leadership team of the university. He is responsible for providing information technology services in support of teaching and scholarship, research computing, and administrative support. Reporting directly to the President, he is responsible for strategic planning and implementation, coordination, budget, personnel, and policy related to information technology at UMBC.

Since 2000, Mr. Suess has been very active nationally in the areas of cybersecurity, identity management, analytics, and cloud computing and has served in a number of national information technology leadership activities with EDUCAUSE, Internet2, and InCommon. His recent activities include participating in the Internet2 Board of Directors (2010-2013), InCommon (2009-Present), Internet2 Council and Program Advisory Committees (2008-Present), ECAR Strategies Working Group (2013-Present), Higher Education Information Security Council (HEISC) (2000-Present, Chair 2003-2006), REN-ISAC Executive Advisory Group (2006-2013), Center for Higher Education CIO Studies (CHECS) (2013-Present), and the National Strategy for Trusted Identity in Cyberspace (NSTIC) (2012-Present).

Dr. Kelvin Thompson works to make online and blended learning even better a little bit every day. Kelvin writes, speaks, and consults within the US higher education community. He has also created many resources at UCF for use by others (e.g., the Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository; the Faculty Seminars in Online Teaching; and the BlendKit Course). He also co-hosts the popular “TOPcast: The Teaching Online Podcast.” As executive director of UCF’s Center for Distributed Learning, he assures the successful operation and strategic goal meeting of this 80 member organization. Kelvin Thompson holds an EdD in curriculum and instruction and an MA in instructional systems technology from UCF and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Florida State University.

As the Chief Information Officer at the University of Central Oklahoma and a member of the President’s Cabinet, Sonya provides leadership for the continued development of innovative technology solutions in support of the university mission. The division of information technology delivers enterprise-level information services that connect students, faculty and staff to learning resources and productivity tools which are available anytime from anywhere. Employing her skills as a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), Sonya has been instrumental in facilitating major information technology initiatives that support the strategic direction of University of Central Oklahoma including the Student Transformative Learning Record.